


Shattered Glass

by vyridian



Category: Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 04:28:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4815041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vyridian/pseuds/vyridian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snippets of Irwin and Matilda's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shattered Glass

****

Youth, sweet youth. She was young again.

Her hair was that fiery scarlet, her cheeks glowing with life, her lips full and red. Her emerald eyes sparkled with spirit.

Matilda reached to touch him, her porcelain fingers brushing against his face. Her touch was like a butterfly landing delicately.

He closed his eyes at her touch, leaning into her hand as she trailed her fingers through his flaming mane.

“Matilda.” He whispered.

She kissed him then.

Moonlight traced their bodies long into the night.

* * *

 

“He’s a demon.” Escad spat.

“I don’t care! And I don’t see why you should either!” Matilda flared.

Escad closed the distance between them and looked down into her brilliant eyes.

“What if he hurts you? I couldn’t bear it, Matilda. I couldn’t stand the thought of a world without you.”

His hand came up and touched her cheek, but she pulled away.

“Escad…”

His gaze hardened.

“Are you in love with him?” he sneered.

She lifted her chin defiantly.

“What’s the point? Nothing can come of it! I don’t understand you. What can he even offer you?”

“He’s not like you!” she cried. “Everything isn’t a plan, a mold, a chain of responsibility. He liberates me! I am free with him! I can be whoever I want to be!”

“He will bring you nothing but pain. Goddess, you are so blind!”

She wanted to hit him then.

“I have never seen things more clearly, Escad. I love him.”

“He has bewitched you, Matilda. Think about what you are saying.” Escad said slowly.

“Hear what I am saying!”

He slammed his fist on the table. “Damnit, Matilda!”

“I have had enough. I will discuss this with you no further. I have chosen to spend my life with Irwin. We will be happy and we will have lovely children who-“

“Children?” Escad’s eyes widened. “Have you…has he…did he dare to…?”

“Dare to? He didn’t rape me. I have always given myself willingly.”

It was like she had driven a knife into his heart. She saw the pain and anger in his eyes as he stared at her in disbelief.

Escad said nothing more, but left her standing in the room alone.

She sighed and slowly made her way out to the temple’s sacred hall.

She knelt before the altar and closed her eyes in prayer.

Please, she whispered to the Goddess, please let there be peace between us all.

* * *

 

She lay on the stone bed, staring up at the elaborate dome ceiling that let light in.

A withered hand touched an equally withered face.

She felt as old as she looked, as if a thousand years had passed.

Everything she had loved and cared about was gone now.

Irwin was gone, and her powers with him.

Escad was gone, sent to the Underworld by Irwin himself.

And the small seedling that had been inside her, their lovechild, gone before it could even start.

Matilda wished she could go, too.

Being alive and left with nothing but memories seemed like too cruel a punishment for having loved.

* * *

 

The air crackled with lightning and Mana.

The skies were gray as they stood on the ancient altar at Mindas.

Irwin stood coldly across from her, his gaze boring into Escad’s who stood with his sword drawn and bloodied. Daena stood to the side, helpless. The golden haired woman said nothing, but looked wary and kept her spear at her side.

Matilda watched the man she loved bear down on the man who loved her and felt the pain of a thousand swords pierce her heart.

“Irwin, please.”

His eyes shifted to her, and suddenly turned, extending his clawed hand.

“Come with me, Matilda.”

She didn’t dare breathe as the possibility flashed through her mind. An eternity with him in the faerie realm, unperturbed by time or age. Away finally, away from Gato, from her duty as priestess, from the prejudice of the world against his demon heritage and their love.

But at what price?

So much had been paid already by Escad. He had spent ten years in the Underworld for her sake, and she could not even repay him with the love he so yearned for.

Daena had paid her price as well, picking up the pieces after Matilda’s powers had been stolen, making sure to nurse her as she rapidly aged.

And Artemis, this child of the goddess, she had shed her own blood after being embroiled in their age old feud.

Could she really ask the people of this world to lay down their lives so she may live on with her beloved as his Faerie Queen?

He saw the sadness in her eyes and his gaze hardened.

The air crackled once more and he was gone.

Matilda put her hands over her face to hide her tears.

* * *

 

The wind whipped viciously as Lucemia reborn twisted through the skies. Her rose red locks flew about her face and she searched frantically for the familiar fire-maned demon.

Lucemia rode low and she saw him then, bloodied, entangled in a battle to the death with Escad and Artemis.

He was dying, she knew.

She wanted to meet him, to cradle his body, to fall upon his sword and curse the goddess for the cruelty she had dealt them.

Star-crossed lovers, the poets had said.

But Matilda knew she wasn’t really there, and soon she would wake in that dreaded stone chamber in Gato.

Irwin’s final anguished cry was drowned out by her screams as she woke in the chamber.

There were faces around her, all blurred, all muttering frantically. She thought she could make out Selva’s clownish face in the haze.

She would go now, too.

It would not be bad, for she felt she had already died many times in this life.

She would finally leave the prison of this world and join Irwin.

She thought darkness would envelope her, but it was only light.

* * *

 

She saw him before her, in a room full of light and warm flames. Silent golden faces were carved into the walls.

“Irwin!”

She rushed to him, her small arms encircling him, her face glowing ecstatically.

He stiffened and pushed her away gently.

His cold blue eyes met hers with something of decisiveness, pain and regret swimming below the surface of it all.

“Matilda…”

“Please. Irwin, please. There is no more to do. We are free now, we can finally be together.”

He stepped towards her and gently caressed her face, tipping her chin up to him.

Her breath caught.

“There can never be any we, Matilda. We will never be free of our natures. Yours is pure. But I am always drawn to chaos. I would destroy the world and all of creation if I could. It was always you who stopped me. Loving you has always been my cripple.”

She clutched at him then, almost desperately, her bright eyes shining.

“Don’t you understand? Don’t you see? It doesn’t matter anymore! We are here! We can finally be! What goes on in the living world is no longer in our hands. It matters not that I was once human, that you were once a demon. We are souls, Irwin. You are the half of my soul that is missing.”

He bent his head down and kissed her gently. She closed her eyes, pain ripping through her. She knew once this kiss was broken, so they would be.

“I love you.” She whispered in vain.

“And I loved you.”

He was gone then, and with him went her heart.

She closed her eyes, and with nothing left to hold on to, sank to the ground of the empty chamber, her despair echoing off the golden walls.

 


End file.
